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The sort of rib eye you describe is commonly sold in Australia. Most of our readily available steaks have little to no marbling. Lean, lean, lean. Nonetheless, I've had pleasing results cooking such steaks sous vide.

In your situation, saute in butter or cook sous vide. If you've gently cooked the steak in a water bath the last thing you want to do is allow the internal temperature to creep up beyond whatever your original target temperature was. And it's not like you want to drop a knob of butter into a screaming hot pan. Use neutral oil with a high smoke point--or no oil, if you've got a non-stick pan--when searing a steak cooked sous vide.

If you want the buttery thing, tho', you could always melt some butter (maybe a compound butter of some description) and brush small quantities of this on your sliced steak.

I cooked the steak tonight. Sous vide 57 deg C for two hours, ice bath for about the same time, then finished in a hot pan with butter. Served with béarnaise sauce.

There was a pleasant crust, then about 1/16 of an inch of gray matter, and a pink interior. The steak was flavorful and very tender -- important for those of us lacking teeth. But it was dry. No amount of butter nor béarnaise could fix that.

The last sous vide Australian steak I cooked had an unpleasantly burned exterior, with a bright pink (perfectly pasteurized but what I would call raw) center. It was not particularly tender.

I cooked the steak tonight. Sous vide 57 deg C for two hours, ice bath for about the same time, then finished in a hot pan with butter. Served with béarnaise sauce.

There was a pleasant crust, then about 1/16 of an inch of gray matter, and a pink interior. The steak was flavorful and very tender -- important for those of us lacking teeth. But it was dry. No amount of butter nor béarnaise could fix that.

The last sous vide Australian steak I cooked had an unpleasantly burned exterior, with a bright pink (perfectly pasteurized but what I would call raw) center. It was not particularly tender.

A few questions first:

Ribeye?

Frozen, Refrigerated, or room temp?

If frozen, how? Flash freeze (from distributor), ice bath then freezer, or just tossed in freezer?

Refrigerated, never frozen, about one inch or a little less. Rinsed and thoroughly patted dry before vacuum sealing.

No liquid or seasoning in the bag.

I was aiming for (and got) a light pink center.

Sadly the meat was dry as dust. I have pretty much given up on sous vide preparation of tender beef. Three day short ribs, great. Twenty four hour chuck, even better. Pork and chicken also work well for me sous vide. But not steak.

This is a tough one for me, because I don't like meat cooked much past medium rare.

I'm with a couple others here who believe lean sous vide is a tricky task. That task is made a lot harder when you get to and above medium. Depending on how long you had the steak in the pan with butter, I can see why it dried out.

I started sous vide because I wanted great steaks. I still get them, but honestly I like it better for what it can do with eggs, poultry, vegetables, and custards more.

For what it's worth, my steaks always come out best when I use the deep-frying method of finishing. I suspect it's because the steak spends the least amount of time subjected to high heat.

If I do this again with aged chuck, I'll try trimming the cook time to 36 or even 24 hours, to see if they can be a bit juicier without sacrificing too much tenderness.

I want to run away with that stove and make babies with it. Do you have any more photos. What island were you on.. That is awesome of Delapetria did that for you. I have not been over there in some time, I normally stick to Paisanos but, liked what I bought there a year back or so. I will have to give them another shot.

I bought these two ribeyes last night.. they were close to 2 lbs each, maybe more. Probably a little more.

I wonder if one thing might have helped: Would it be possible to take the 4 week aged chuckeye roast, open it up to remove all the tough connective tissue and big pockets of fat, reassemble and bond with Activa, then portion and cook as you have done? I suppose that would remove the possibility of the four hour "danger zone" cooking?

With the help of a pair of zombies and Dansko sandals from the footware thread I was able to stand at the stove and cook the steak for about an hour. What may have started out as footware has turned into a fetish as I now have three pair of Dansko, they are so comfortable.

Admittedly I may have been carried away in the cooking as there was little or no pink. However the meat was so unctuous there was no contest with the pink sous vide Australian rib eye that was completely dry.

I wonder if one thing might have helped: Would it be possible to take the 4 week aged chuckeye roast, open it up to remove all the tough connective tissue and big pockets of fat, reassemble and bond with Activa, then portion and cook as you have done? I suppose that would remove the possibility of the four hour "danger zone" cooking?

Yeah, and I'd also check the time/temp curves to see how long the center would take to get up to a safe zone at the cooking temperature. Some people have had issues with spoilage bacteria when the rise time is too long, if they've done stuff to compromise the sterility of the center. Interesting idea, though. It might just require slicing the meat a bit thinner.

Sous vide grass fed flank steak: 131 degrees F for 24 hours then a quick sear. Perfect medium-rare and very tender. I had previously cooked that kind of flank steak at 125 for a couple of hours for a more rare meat but it was quite chewy.

Tonight was the second of my three wet aged (that may be a euphemism for something close to rotting) ribeyes, cooked by the Fat Guy/Ducasse method. The degree of doneness was just right, which I attribute as much to good fortune as to culinary skill, since the cook (me) was more than a few sheets to the wind.

Shoprite, the only store that I can easily get to, does not have a great meat department. And don't even think about the fish or seafood. However I noticed that they now carry a new type of vacuum packed Angus steak. This steak is marked "choice" and is much better marbled than any other meat in the store. They claim it is aged. It is also about twice as much per pound as regular Angus, which means it is way more expensive than ordinary steak. But I must say the marbling looked far more appetizing than anything else at the meat counter.

Being the inquisitive sort I had to try it. I bought a rib steak. The steak was large enough to serve me for about four meals. For the first experiment I cut off the deckle and cooked it up as Anna taught me: hot pan, cook till crust forms then turn. The crust was lovely. But what lurked beneath minded me more of galvanism and Mary Shelley.

Tonight I prepared the eye. I gave it extra time on both sides and the edges. The crust, if anything, was even more lovely, but what I would probably have sent back in a restaurant as raw. Maybe my expectations just need calibrating?

If you sear the outside of a steak and then put in a 325F oven the inside will finish nicely to whatever temp you want. The time varies with the thickness. I'd guess 10 min for a 1.5 inch steak. It goes quickly toward the end so take multiple temps.

I've never tried Shop-rite steaks. Acme, our market down here, has terrible steak. I get mine at costco and freeze a bunch.

Though Angus is a legit cattle breed, what's marketed as Angus in the US is a heterogeneous mix of cattle that are loosely related to Angus but are >50% black ...in other words not a consistent type.

Shoprite, the only store that I can easily get to, does not have a great meat department. And don't even think about the fish or seafood. However I noticed that they now carry a new type of vacuum packed Angus steak. This steak is marked "choice" and is much better marbled than any other meat in the store. They claim it is aged. It is also about twice as much per pound as regular Angus, which means it is way more expensive than ordinary steak. But I must say the marbling looked far more appetizing than anything else at the meat counter.

Being the inquisitive sort I had to try it. I bought a rib steak. The steak was large enough to serve me for about four meals. For the first experiment I cut off the deckle and cooked it up as Anna taught me: hot pan, cook till crust forms then turn. The crust was lovely. But what lurked beneath minded me more of galvanism and Mary Shelley.

Tonight I prepared the eye. I gave it extra time on both sides and the edges. The crust, if anything, was even more lovely, but what I would probably have sent back in a restaurant as raw. Maybe my expectations just need calibrating?

I don't know about a new version of the Angus brand. I have noticed that the "choice" grade can encompass a lot, ranging from barely any marbling to something I'd easily mistake for prime.

They're not really telling you anything when they call it aged. All beef is aged a couple of weeks or so. In most cases it's aged in cryovac packaging (in this case it would be the retail packaging too). This is wet aging. It increases tenderness but doesn't develop the kinds of flavors you get from dry aging.

My vague sense of the Angus brand is that is has to do more with an independent set of quality standards than with anything special about the breed of cow. And of course it's a marketing consortium.

Tonight I prepared the eye. I gave it extra time on both sides and the edges. The crust, if anything, was even more lovely, but what I would probably have sent back in a restaurant as raw. Maybe my expectations just need calibrating?

Like others have suggested, the problem seems to be with the technique rather than with the meat itself. Did you cook it straight from the fridge or did you let it sit out for an hour or so? If you're just searing the steak on both sides, even a deep seer won't be enough to cook the interior, especially on thicker cuts. It's much better to sear on both sides and transfer to a low oven. If you're just cooking one steak and you can babysit it, you can do the Heston method and cook it in a scorching hot pan, turning every 15 or 20 seconds.

I must say the buckhead angus was better than regular angus. I generally don't find much difference between regular angus and the store brand beef, certainly not enough to be worth the price premium for angus.

But the buckhead angus is twice the price of regular angus, even more than the cost of Australian beef.

The stovetop-to-oven method works well, but can take a while to dial in (you can't see what's going on in an oven). I believe this method evolved to make best use of the limited burner space at restaurants. If you don't face those recommendations, there are ways to get results that are at least as good on the stove.

Heston's method should work well. So does the Ducasse method (at the beginning of the thread I linked above). Easiest of all is to start in a blazing pan with high heat oil and sear both sides. Then pour off the oil, and turn the heat very low. Add butter. Flip the steak every minute or two, and keep basting it with the browning butter. The temperature gradient won't be as minute as with a sous-vide steak, but it should be pretty unintrusive.

The stovetop-to-oven method works well, but can take a while to dial in (you can't see what's going on in an oven). I believe this method evolved to make best use of the limited burner space at restaurants. If you don't face those recommendations, there are ways to get results that are at least as good on the stove.

Heston's method should work well. So does the Ducasse method (at the beginning of the thread I linked above). Easiest of all is to start in a blazing pan with high heat oil and sear both sides. Then pour off the oil, and turn the heat very low. Add butter. Flip the steak every minute or two, and keep basting it with the browning butter. The temperature gradient won't be as minute as with a sous-vide steak, but it should be pretty unintrusive.

You may have noticed I am a participant in the Ducasse thread. That is my favorite method as long as the steak is thick enough. For me the Ducasse method doesn't work that well with normal sized steaks. I don't eat much meat at a sitting, though I did see a nice looking buckhead angus cowboy rib steak tonight. Reminded me of a small rib roast. I didn't buy it, but I'm sure it would have been delightful by the Ducasse method.

In my hands sous vide steak turns out pretty, but totally dried out. I don't think sous vide works that well with tender beef.